No Christmas cheer for the RBST

Our regular Christmas get-together with fellow keepers of rare breeds is always a jolly occasion, but this year’s event had a more serious side. The Northamptonshire Rare Breeds Survival Trust group which I belong to – there isn’t an Oxfordshire group - has decided to end its connection with the RBST in protest at the way money raised by local groups is administered by the parent organisation.

The Northamptonshire group believe that very little cash from the thousands of pounds raised by hard-working local groups is actually spent on the RBST’s core activity, conserving rare breeds. This came as a bit of a shock to me – I have been a member of the organisation for many years, long before I actually began to keep rare breed sheep myself.

The Northants group will continue to actively raise money for native rare breeds – but the funds it raises will not be sent on to the RBST, with members being asked to decide which projects they would like to support financially.

Gail Sprake, chairman of the RBST’s Trustees, told me: “We have 25 Support Groups spread throughout Great Britain who do admirable work on behalf of RBST and who are much valued. I am concerned too that some of our members consider that the valuable funds raised by the support groups are being used for administration and other expenses as you pointed out in your email, rather than being channelled in to work which directly helps towards the conservation of our native breeds of livestock.”

She added that in 2012 the RBST spent £470,000 on conservation projects.

This sort of controversy over the way charities make use of financial contributions is nothing new, but it is still depressing. Hopefully the group will quickly sort out its differences with the RBST – which this year celebrated its 40th anniversary – as it relies heavily on local groups for fundraising..

Meanwhile, it was great to see so many younger folk among the old-timers at the Christmas shindig. It appears that an interest in keeping native breeds of livestock is thriving among the new generation of young farmers and smallholders.

Britain probably has the largest range of native sheep breeds in the world. They are an integral part of our history and are descended from local types which successfully adapted to particular environmental and geographical conditions. The diversity of native British sheep breeds derives from generations of careful shepherding which this younger generation will hopefully continue.

Many of our breeds have important connections. The Portland, for example, is the progenitor of the Dorset Horn, while almost all long-wool sheep in Britain (and many breeds abroad) trace a significant ancestry to the shaggy Leicester Longwool.

The North Ronaldsay which over the centuries has adapted to a diet of seaweed, has provided farmers with valuable information on protein utilisation and copper toxicity – illustrating how animals, largely unchanged for thousands of years, can play an important part in the modern world.

Many native breeds have been free of artificial selection pressures and have evolved in small self-contained populations, making them suitable for hybridisation. For example, many primitive breeds have shown good commercial qualities in crossbreeding.

That means that native sheep breeds are well-placed to contribute to the diversification currently being required of farmers.

Warm welcome for Percy

It is time to start planning for next year’s lambs and ensuring that the rams, who have spent a lovely summer chilling out eating grass and enjoying the sunshine, are in top condition. It is also the time of year when a lot of ram swapping and selling goes on, as breeders seek to introduce new bloodlines into their flocks.

There was much excitement in our house last weekend as we awaited the result of an auction in York where a good farmer friend (a fine judge of sheep and chair of the Northants Rare Breeds Survival Trust group) of ours was looking for a new tup for our Ryeland flock.

My mobile was red hot as calls went to-and-fro during the auction – and it was a great relief when I got the news that our favoured animal had been secured, and for a bargain price too.

If you have never been to a livestock auction it is worth going even if you don’t intend to buy anything. The sights and sounds make for great entertainment.

The ram – Ruslin Persil White or Percy for short – is two-years-old and comes originally from an award-winning Ryeland breeder. According to his pedigree certificate he also has some Australian blood in his veins.

Percy is a handsome chap and I am really looking forward to seeing the results of his labours next spring. However, after a wet week in our field, he is not quite so Persil White any more.

He also has yet to be introduced properly to our coloured ram, Valentine, although they have met through the fence. As they will have to live together for part of the year I am hoping a pecking order will be established swiftly without too much head-butting.

Ram sales are still a highlight of the farming year – and Oxford used to host one of the largest.

The Oxford Ram Fair is a vanished feature of Oxford life according to Oxford historian Malcolm Graham. He told me that, according to the Victoria History of the County of Oxford, vol. 4, a ram fair was first recorded in august, 1902, and held in St Thomas’s parish. But, in 1927, when around 7,000 sheep were sold at the fair, the event was said to have been established 40 years previously.

In 1918, the fair attracted around 600 Oxford and Hampshire Down rams as well as nearly 3,000 ewes, theaves (first year ewe lambs if you have been paying attention) and store lambs.

The event was originally held in the Oxpens, but, as that area was developed between the wars, the fair was moved to a field north of the bridge over the Bulstake Stream in Binsey Lane.

When Malcolm interviewed the late Charles Gee, of Binsey Manor Farm, in 1998, he said the fair continued to be held annually in Binsey until the early 1960s.

You can find some fascinating film footage of the event from the 1930s on the British Pathé website (www.britishpathe.com). It is a fine reminder of Oxford’s agricultural heritage.

Down on Adam's Farm

It was a visit to the Cotswold Farm Park more than 20 years ago that kick-started my interest in rare breeds in all their myriad variety.  Opened in 1971 by Joe Henson, one of the founders of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, the Cotswold Farm Park was the first of the  RBST’s ‘Approved Centres’ and is home to more than 50 breeding flocks and herds of native British farm animals.

These days the farm park at Guiting Power, near Cheltenham, is a big tourist attraction and probably better known as 'Adam's Farm' as seen on BBC 1's Countryfile programme.

We took the guide book from our original visit with us, much to the delight of older members of staff, who spotted friends and family in early photographs featured in the guide.

Many things have changed since my first visit – there is a bistro-style restaurant selling tasty dishes made using local produce, a shop, and a play area for kids – but the rare breeds, which Joe and his son Adam have worked so hard to preserve, remain at the heart of the farm.

It is a great attraction for schools – and the groups of children at the farm on the day we were there were lucky enough to watch the arrival of a donkey foal.

What I wasn’t expecting to witness was the farm’s ‘pyramid of sheep’ show.

Sadly you don’t get to see acrobatic sheep performing tricks on the back of a motorcycle as seen in Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave. This show is slightly more serious, but just as entertaining. It provides a visual tour through the development of our native sheep breeds, from their primitive beginnings to today’s commercial money-makers.

Stars of the event are the farm’s well-trained group of rams, who obviously enjoy meeting their public. The ‘pyramid’ is the ram’s stage which, encouraged by a bit of feed, they leap on, one-by-one, to strut their stuff.

The show begins with the primitive Soay ram, called Samuel, before moving on to Bronze Age North Ronaldsay sheep, Shetland sheep from the Iron Age, before moving on to the well-known Cotswold sheep, said to have been brought to this country by the Romans, then the Viking age Hebridean sheep, and the still quite rare rare Norfolk Horn, first seen in post-conquest Norman Britain.

It is said that the ancestors of the attractive Portland breed swam ashore from wrecked ships of the Spanish Armada, while the attractive multi-coloured Jacob breed, which may have originated in Syria, has huge horns and a fine fleece much sought-after by spinners and weavers.

The show ended with the arrival of the chunky Texel ram, today’s top commercial breed which produces fast-growing, meaty lambs .

I have to say that of all the fine chaps on show, I fell for Bill the Portland , with his foxy red fleece and calm demeanour. The Jacob may have a fine fleece, but its spear-like horns would make handling very difficult.

This was confirmed by Matt, our host for the sheep show, who admitted that shearers don’t like the hefty horns (they can have up to four) which are a definite threat to their wedding-tackle during the job of clipping the valuable fleece. Doesn’t bear thinking about!

The Cotswold Farm Park is well worth a visit, even if you have just a passing interest in farm animals and farming. Visit the new website at www.cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk